Woodworking blog entries tagged with 'asphaltum'

OK, first attempt at a blog, so please bear with me.
This blog series is my journey of trying to replicate the japanning process used on many tools, especially hand planes, for over a century. It will include some abject failures, as well as what was found to work for me.
This blog is not a commentary on how someone else might choose to finish their planes when doing a restoration and I am not necessarily advocating japanning over any other finish. There are many people on this site t...

When we left off, the first coat of Japanning had been applied and allowed to cure. The next day, here is what I had.
Even given 24 hours in a very hot and dry Kansas summer, the finish was still a bit tacky. The few internet posts I had found said that you needed to either bake the finish or allow it to cure 30 days or so. A couple also mentioned applying two coats before doing either of those, so I pressed on with another light coat and let it set overnight.
In order to try and...